The official Beat Club YouTube channel in Jan 2019 uploaded the videotaped portions of this show in four segments. The ads can be jarring, but the set is highly entertaining and instructive. For example, you can see that it is Billy the muffs the changes in Sugaree--not Pigpen, as some had speculated--while Donna is behind the feedback that forces a restart of the 2nd PITB. It's also interesting that Jerry has to teach her about mic distance. Anyone that nitpicks this show really needs better things to do.

If you are able to locate the video-
- this is excellent.
For context
it is just a tiny part of what was going down
for Europe 72
but as far as video goes
besides 2 sets worth of material
from the previous show
there is just not much video of this tour.
This is the first video of Donna Jean
singing on PITB that I am aware of.
She does not have a large role in this tour.

From what I understand everyone was tripping during this performance! I prefer the youtube viddy's sound to this version. Good times, good times.

A touch grating on the ears.

What could be overlooked as not-a-real-show is as hot as the tour as a whole. Beat-Club is renowned because it was unique among TV shows in that - rather than have bands play a couple brief songs - it let them play their set (then selecting tracks for air). Which is, of course, perfect for the Dead, who came to Bremen ready to load-in, bring their madness to the studio crew & staff, and jam awhile (more than 90min).

After warming up, taping started with a decent Bertha followed by a perfectly tight Playin' with minimal Donnaskreech™. Mr. Charlie is likewise perfect (as almost every night on the tour). Sugaree has a false start and doesn't really take off. One More Saturday Night is way uptempo and, tempered by the setting, the conciseness fits the arrangement . They decide to trust to reason and tape another Playin', because they can. After a false start (the CD notes say Bobby blew the line but, given his comment before, seems he sang "treason" purposefully. Not as adventurous as the first take - just more sitting on the wah. Beat it on Down the Line-7 gets by but the winner is Truckin'. After a false start Jer does Mendelssohn's Spring Song. The story of the composer who faced antisemitism and became an Anglophile is interesting (read about Mendelssohn all from his works) but Jer apparently came to the riff the same way as Merry-Go-Round Broke Down. The restart is tight as hell - one of the best ever, with wildfire solos. The same follows into a hot The Other One. You get to hear some Pig organ, swelling and breathing like it's playing THEM. After it winds down, the taping is done, but they just let it break down and diddle diddle diddle - the formless dead that acolytes (and either you're a head or an acolyte) consistently fail to grasp; but what you witness here is creation itself (okay...songwriting itself).

Grade = A

Highlights:
Playing in the Band - 1st one is nailed
Mr. Charlie - so on the dime and Jer varies each and every night
One More Saturday Night - brisk r-n-r
Truckin' - tightest ever and Jer amazes
The Other One - both tight and extremely exploratory, taking advantage of the atmosphere

SOURCES: The slow-pitched soundboard does no justice compared to the official release, but does have the two warm-up songs. The video portion is usually on Youtube. Only Saturday Night was used for the show and the official Beat-Club DVDs but a whole-show DVD circulates/sells. Both audio and video versions cut the banter in different places (Jer does a brief Teddy Bear's Picnic before BioDtL). Of all the boys' TV-studio appearances, this is perhaps the most entertaining because they have the most freedom and they put out a focused, tight, yet progressive set (and melted down the staff). One of the most entertaining single discs of the steamer trunk box.

Certainly not the best show of the tour, if anything due to its brevity, but the Truckin>Drums>Other One sequence is very powerful, with some extraordinary leads from Jerry. The SQ of the official release definitely boosts my rating; this is a show that is quite worth hearing!

The Beat Club was a TV broadcast in Bremen, Germany. As such, it was live but there was no audience. Robert Hunter commented on this show in the rhino edition of Europe '72; Hunter noticed that the room felt stiff and cold. "I realized that what they needed was people dancing, but there was only me," he says, "so I piled onto the floor and danced my proverbial ass off, the music picked right up."

I have only sampled the sound a little on this as of yet. The sound quality isn't bad for something this old. I am going to give it 4 stars because the only realy bad thing about a Grateful Dead concrt is not being able to hear it at all.

"The Beat Club, a kind of disco joint managed by straightlaced, technical little German shits. 'You vill do it zis vay!' The Grateful Dead follow the rules? Good fucking luck, dudes!" Rock Scully

Perhaps the weakest performance of the European tour. Not particularly well played and the sound quality is somewhat problematic. Still, the short Playin' in the Band is a decent performance while The 23 minute Other One has its moments and contains a couple of interesting passages, the most compelling of which are a brief melodic jam immediately after the intro and a particularly intense Garcia solo starting around the 13 minute mark. (90 pts)

I believe Loser and Black Throated Wind are from the soundcheck. I think that's why they stop and fix the feedback problems. Nice show and even if there's some hiss, it's still the only copy posted here from this show, so...

Do the star ratings matter for this tour? It's ALL so F'n good!

The tape this recording is from obviously suffered from drag (over successive generations) that slowed down the original tempo of the music. I recall many bootlegs over the years having issues with being either too fast or too slow compared w/what was played originally. BUT, despite those defects in the recordings, it just added another dimension to the sound of the bootleg that endeared me (at least) to them---this one is no different. I actually enjoy that this recording is a tad slow. The power of what they were doing is still backed up inspite of the flaw.
The banter after Black-throated Wind (played w/aplomb) is quite funny. Truckin>TOO is typically good, as it would be for the entirety of 1972---'72 is my fav year for The Other One.

Anything that takes me back to Europe 72 is ok with me.Brings back red bud/blonde hash memories.Cruising our stone route during periodic school skips,listening to the Europe 72 tapes.What a great innocent time..........As usual..THANKS ARCHIVE!

some of this stuff is unbelievable. whats all this nonsense about bad sound quality? it just sounds antique, it adds to the quality-it makes it sound old, and like a real tape reel-very nice. the playin is one of the best ive ever heard, the black throated wind is slower than normal and is very unique. also one of the best berthas ive ever heard. definitely worth the download

I think you have to be truly deadicated to get past the mediocre sound quality. But having said that the playing is amazing as previous reviews claim. Europe '72 run must have been a blast for the band if the consistent quality of performance is any indicator. The added weight of being Pigpen's last hurrah make these shows extra special. I admit I get distracted by a poor quality recording and would not recommend this to newcomers. Try Rotterdam 5/11 & London 5/26. But for those who appreciate greatness you need only be a music lover to love this shit...

OMG! This Playin absolutely BLAZES! I was doing a sound check on the show and I downloaded the Playin. This Playin is as aggressive as it gets. There is NO other band that jams this hard and this good. This Playin is a step further than most other jams. Bottom line: I need to own this Playin. Ergo, so do you.
The Other One also rages. After the bass driven opening, the Dead jam HARD for about 2 minutes. It doesn't matter how many times I hear this type of jam from The Dead: I always get goose bumps as I pay homage to their shear mastery of their instruments as well as to their ingenuity and inventiveness of jam. There really was nothing like a Grateful Dead concert. All ya gotta do is listen and you'll have an epiphany as to just how good these guys were. This entire year is jam after jam of raging Grateful Dead. I suggest you own it all.

degraded SBD (and its pitch problems), you'll find that this show has far more than initially meets the eye. The reviewer below is absolutely right about the Playin'. Intense, surging, yet melodic, this jam is classic Europe '72. While this Playin' is short, it is essential Dead.
The Truckin>Drums>Other One segment also contains some neat improvisation. The 23-minute Other One contains more melodic jamming than your typical '72 version, plus there is some space after the 2nd verse, though no transition is made (Wharf Rat could have easily segued out of it). Despite the lackluster recording quality, slow speed, and tedious between-song chatter, this show is worth picking up, especially for Other One fans.

Sound Quality isn't too too bad.
What's great about this show, is the feedback
during Loser. It gets so bad the band has to stop.
You can hear Bobby say, "Somebody is fucking up!"
Other than that the show is so-so.

The sound on Truckin > Other One will need a speed correction, vocals are deeper than normal.

well...as usual the dead is playing well, but the performance is masked with cruddy audio....hissy wissy...nice playin though......nice playin